Setchell insists Steelmen ‘owe it’ to the fans to try to finish the season well

The Steelmen’s hopes of claiming a play-off place in the Northern Premier League Midlands were all-but ended after they were beaten 4-0 by Chasetown at Steel Park on Saturday.

The loss came after a 4-1 defeat at Sporting Khalsa and a 2-2 draw with Gresley Rovers as three games without a win have proved costly for Corby’s top-five hopes.

Corby will have to wait a little longer to play their next game as they will now head to the south of the county to take on Daventry Town on Wednesday night (7.45pm kick-off) after today’s Easter Monday clash was called off due to ‘circumstances beyond the control’ of Daventry due to the arrival of travellers next to their ground.

But when Corby do play again, Setchell knows his team must “be as professional as we can”.

The Steelmen boss said: “We got ourselves in a great position, took our foot off the gas and got our collars felt.

“It’s disappointing. I always knew, even on the good run we had, that we weren’t battering teams but we were coming out on the right side of some tight games because we were doing the basics half well.

“Confidence with a young set of lads is key and we lost our confidence in the 4-1 defeat at Khalsa. That burst the bubble and it has stayed burst since.

“It’s my job to pick the players up for the next three games and be as professional as we can.

“There will still be plenty of people who will come and watch us at Daventry and there will be people here next week when we play St Neots.

“We owe it to them to finish the season the best we can and give ourselves something to go into the summer and next season with.”

The Steelmen’s cause hasn’t been helped by the absence of recent signing Charley Sanders after he suffered a hamstring injury in the 1-0 win over Spalding United.

And with their hopes now all-but over, it seems unlikely he will feature again this season.

“Charley would have definitely been involved for Boldmere (on the final day of the season) if we’d been in the hunt and we probably could have pushed him for St Neots (next weekend),” Setchell added.

“Is there any value in that now? I’m not sure.

“I am pretty much certain Charley will be with us for next season and that would be massive for us.

“We probably needed him in these three games he missed. We signed him for the run-in and he had a great start and then unfortunately pulled his hamstring.

“One player wouldn’t have made a difference on Saturday and we have had seven or eight who haven’t turned up in the last few games when they needed to,”